MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS by Anthony Marra - Review

 


MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS (Hogarth) by Anthony Marra is brilliant on so many levels. It's hilarious one moment, then turns serious, all the while presenting multi-dimensional, complex characters within a complicated novel.   .

It's 1940s pre-war Europe: Immigrants are fleeing the continent on the cusp of WWII. Maria and her mother escape Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini for America. They leave behind her father and a neighborhood boy who are imprisoned. In Los Angeles, Maria gets a job at Mercury Pictures Studio as an associate producer, working for studio founder, Artie Feldman, an eccentric man who believes women can work during these sexist times. Maria tries to forget her past but reminders are around every corner. She interacts with other recent immigrants, many who are also dealing with the guilt of leaving her father behind and the ever-present memories of what once was home.

MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS reveals the lives of  many people in Europe and  America struggling to get by as war rages on. While reading you might want to keep notes to stay connected. This novel is historical fiction at its finest. The plot, lessons of war, intelligent characters and the wonderful writing by Anthony Marra will keep you feverishly flipping pages to the end. At first I thought this would make a fabulous movie, but I don't think Hollywood could achieve the same quality of story. Well perhaps, if produced by Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese.

Anthony Marra is the New York Times bestselling author of The Tsar of Love and Techno and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and longlisted for the National Book Award.

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